Exclusive Interview with Dominic Purcell - Global Brand Ambassador

Bausele’s global ambassador, Hollywood based Australian Actor Dominic Purcell takes time out of filming his DC Comics hit series Legends Of Tomorrow to talk all things Bausele.

What was it that you love about Bausele?

First and foremost I am Australian. I travel all over the world for my job but Australia is in my DNA. I have been based in Los Angeles for over 20 years now and I love it here, but nothing compares to the beauty of Australia’s beaches like Bondi Beach, Bells Beach, Byron Bay or you take your pick, there are too many amazing beaches to list. Bausele is absolutely as Australian as a brand can get. Sure it has the Swiss made aspect, (which is a must have for a watch in my opinion) but underneath all the Swiss precision and world class quality, Bausele actually contains a piece of Australia. So, like me, everywhere I go in the world, Australia comes with me, a Bausele watch takes some red earth from the Kimberly Ranges or some sand from White Haven Beach in its crown wherever it goes. Wearing a Bausele allows me to actually take a piece of home wherever I go.

What are you most proud of about Bausele?

Well not long after I left school I was laboring for a landscape gardener. I knew pretty early (about two days into it) that this was not for me. One day I was in Circular Quay, out near the Opera House and I saw this guy moving stuff. I needed a job so I asked what he was doing and if he needed any help. Long story short, my first job in the entertainment industry was as a stage hand at the Sydney Opera House. I was moving props around the stage and helping set everything up for the actors. It was still heavy physical work but at least I wasn’t land scaping. It was where I got my first real introduction to acting. I worked for several months, maybe a year and then I decided I wanted to be an actor. The time I spent working played an integral part in the decision making process of me wanting to become and actor so I really have a soft spot for the SOH. I feel I owe it something. I am not sure what I would have done if I didn’t become an actor. So when the brand I am already proud to represent partnered with the iconic building that I already had a strong emotional attachment with, it was a super proud moment for me. The Sydney Opera House watch that Chrsitophe Hoppe the founder and designer came up with is amazing. It has some of one of the actual tiles off the roof in the hollow crown and at the same time each day that the Opera House was officially opened (I think it is 2.45pm) the sales on the dial of the watch form to show the Sydney Opera House on the face. It’s very cool.

What is your favorite Bausele collection and why?

Two words: Ocean & Strength. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the ocean so it has to be the Oceanmoon. It has a tidal feature that I use all the time. Once I set the tide I only need to look at my wrist and I know when it’s time to surf. I film in Vancouver Canada most weeks on Legends Of Tomorrow. The days are LONG and by Friday I am exhausted. I can’t wait to get out of character and just be Dom for a while. I fly home to LA most Friday’s or Saturday mornings, see the kids then head to the surf. The Oceanmoon is the perfect watch for me. It is very hard to surf at low tide around Northern Los Angeles point breaks as they all have rocky bottoms that come out of the water at low tide, so a mid to high tide is better. The tidal feature is important to me. The 200m (660ft for my American friends) is also a must for a surfer, not that I will ever get down that deep but the force of a wave hitting you can create similar pressure on the watch to being down that deep. Falling off your board, not that I ever do ;) is also tough on a watch. Several times I have hit my watch either on the board or on the rocks on the bottom. The new Oceanmoon collection uses a Nano Ceramic which is about 30% stronger than normal sapphire crystal that most watches use as the face, so this is definitely another plus for me. An extra feature to this watch that I love is that Bausele have started making straps out of recycled plastic PET bottle, so further protecting the ocean that I love.

You have been Bausele’s global ambassador for a few years now any interesting Bausele Stories?

In the show Prison Break that I starred in with my good friend Wentworth Miller, my character Lincoln Burrows, wore a Bausele Terra Australis in season 5. We were in Morocco filming a scene where everyone was coming out of the jail and my character had to run back into the jail (insert reason here). I had to run through this long cage against the traffic of everyone rushing back out. The cage had these big heavy metal beams on the roof. It was a pretty hectic scene with a lot of people and a lot of movement. I bumped into one of the actors running in the opposite direction to me which caused me to bounce off the side wall the cage. I took a few more steps and then it felt like the world exploded. Me bouncing off the wall had caused the cage too collapse and the big heavy metal beams on the roof came crashing down on the back my head, smashing my face into the concrete below. I remember wondering WTF just happened? I felt ok but the look on the faces of the first people to get to me told a different story. I had a serious head wound that needed immediate attention and a badly broken nose. Luckily girlfriend at the time AnnaLynne McCord (from 90210) was on set with me at the time. She was like a general and took complete control, she made sure I got the medical attention I needed. AnnaLynne made sure that Fox sent a medivac helicopter to get us out of the desert and into a hospital. Finding a suitable hospital in the desert in Morocco was a different story, (I never thought I would see cats roaming the halls of a hospital). So how does this tie in with Bausele? I remember I was sitting in the helicopter and I wondered what the time was and I looked at the Terra Australis on my wrist and I thought “oh, I broke my watch too”. It was still ticking and told perfect time, but I had cracked the Bauselite casing. In the end I ended up with hundreds of stiches in the back of my head and a new nose and my watch received a new casing. In a few weeks we were both back on set to complete filming. I was very rattled as it was completely a near death experience, but as they say in Hollywood, the show must go on.